2 December 2016

 
## series dmarketentry is constant and has been removed

Airbnb in Berlin

  • An online apartment sharing platform founded in 2008.

  • 20,000+ Berliners hosted more than half a million guests in 2015

  • Renting out flats as a source of income has become more and more popular.

Airbnb in Berlin

Previous Research

  • Airbnb drives up rent: Schäfer et al. (2016) found that rent growth is higher in neighbourhoods that have a significant number of misused flats.

  • But What About The Hotel Industry? Guttentag (2015) estimates that Airbnb sold about 15 million room nights in 2012. Similar to that of Fairfield Inn & Suites or InterContinental, two major hotel brands.

  • Evidence from Texas: Zervas, Proserpio, and Byers (2016) found that a 10 percent size increase of the Airbnb market in Texas resulted in a .39 percent decrease in hotel revenue.

Research Question & Hypothesis




What is the effect of Airbnb on Hotels in Berlin?

The higher the Airbnb supply in a given district in Berlin, the greater the negative effect on the hotel industry in that same district.

Data & Variables

  • Sources: Statistical Information System Berlin/Brandenburg (SBB), the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the Länder (FSO), InsideAirbnb.com, & Eurostat.
Type of Variable Name
Independent Variable Airbnb Supply
Independent Variable Dynamic Airbnb Supply
Dependent Variable Overnight Stays
Dependent Variable Occupancy Rate

Effect of Change in Airbnb Listings on Hotel Occupancy Rates in Berlin (2010 - 2014)

Effect of Change in Airbnb Listings on Hotel Occupancy Rates in Berlin (2010 - 2014)

Building the Model

Fixed Effects (for time and district) to account for unobserved heterogeneity:

\({\log Occupancy Rate}_{it} = \beta _i * \log AbbSupply_{it} + \beta _j * X' + \tau _i + \varepsilon _{it}\)

\({X'}\): Control variables (UE rate, average HH income, passengers arriving in Berlin)

\({\tau _i}\): Time and district dummies

Modifications

  • \[{Occupancy Rate}_{it} = \frac {{Overnight Stays}_{it}}{{Hotel Beds}_{it}*{days}_{t}}\]

  • Introducing dynamic Airbnb supply

First Results

Prelimenary Conclusion

Policy Implications

  1. Unlike Zervas et al., we did not find a significant negative effect of Airbnb on the hotel industry.

Guttentag, Daniel. 2015. “Airbnb: Disruptive Innovation and the Rise of an Informal Tourism Accommodation Sector.” Current Issues in Tourism 18 (12). Taylor & Francis: 1192–1217.

Schäfer, Philipp, Nicole Braun, Richard Reed, and Nicole Johnston. 2016. “Misuse Through Short-Term Rentals on the Berlin Housing Market.” International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis 9 (2). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Zervas, Georgios, Davide Proserpio, and John Byers. 2016. “The Rise of the Sharing Economy: Estimating the Impact of Airbnb on the Hotel Industry.” Boston U. School of Management Research Paper, no. 2013-16.